Every Day is June
by L. Greene
Summary: AU! Sequel to "The Reckoning." With the arrival of their daughter, the Lords-Pellegrino family has a lot of adjusting to do. How will having June affect our favorite burning wreck lawyer and sex god bartender? T for language.
1. No More Tears

**Here, have some unrepentant fluff. I think we all need this after the "Family Business" debacle... I know I needed it.**

* * *

Today was really not Taz's day.

Luce left the house at eight that morning and promptly at eight-thirty, June started crying. Taz figured she was hungry. He'd heard it was something babies generally were—hungry, that is. So, keeping her carefully balanced against his chest, he prepared her morning bottle with one hand (he was getting far too good at that) and then gingerly adjusted her so she was in the best position for feeding.

Silence fell in the kitchen, a welcome relief, and for a few minutes, he enjoyed the quiet. "There," he murmured with a fond smile as she finished off her bottle. "Better?"

But apparently, she wasn't, because the moment he set the bottle in the sink, she started crying again.

"Oh, God," he muttered. He shifted her again to press her against his chest, cradling the back of her neck, and bounced her lightly. That usually did the trick. That or swaying side-to-side, which was his next move when she still didn't stop crying. Unfortunately, neither of them worked this time. She just continued wailing, as if oblivious to her papa's attempts at consolation. He quietly shushed her, saying, "It's okay, love, Papa's here, you're fine" even though he knew full well the two-month-old didn't understand a word he was saying, but he also knew that the mere sound of his voice often calmed her down.

Except it didn't this time. He tried everything he could think of—singing to her, burping her, making sure she didn't need a diaper change, setting her down and trying to cheer her up with her teddy bear, turning on the television to distract her—but nothing worked. He tried exactly once to give her the green pacifier that had been a gift from Luce's mother, but June just spat it back out and continued crying. Taz sighed and walked away long enough to drop it in some hot water to clean it before he picked his daughter up and began shuffling around the house to calm her down.

He set her in her crib, thinking maybe she hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before and was inexplicably tired. It was always a possibility—he'd worked late at the bar the previous night and didn't know how many times Luce had been up to settle her down—but as he laid her down, she coughed once. For a joyous moment, Taz thought he'd succeeded. That had to be it; she'd ceased her wailing. But she resumed a moment later, causing Taz to groan and hit his forehead against the top of the crib's rail with a _thunk_. If anything, she was louder now. At least the tears diminished somewhat when he had her back in his arms, but she still cried with all the might in her tiny lungs.

"Baby, I do not know what is wrong with you," he said seriously. He really didn't, either. It had been nearly an hour since he fed her and she still hadn't quieted down. It wasn't like he'd done anything differently than he normally did. He held her the same way and talked to her the same way. The whole situation was baffling and he couldn't wrap his head around it. It was almost like she didn't want to be comforted. "Little troublemaker," he murmured affectionately. "Always making things difficult for me. Just like your daddy, eh?"

The little troublemaker in question ignored him. It seemed as though she truly was her father's child—definitely Luce's biological daughter.

She shut up for about ten minutes around lunchtime, just long enough to put away two bottles of formula ("I'll have to watch out for that, or you'll start eating everything in sight, won't you?") before she opened up her mouth again and started crying. Taz ran through his options again, thinking maybe she'd just been still hungry after breakfast. This time, June did need a diaper change, but after all the hoopla, nothing changed. She just went on crying.

He still had no idea what she was fussing about. Maybe she'd had some strange sort of baby nightmare the night before and simply couldn't be consoled. Maybe she was happy and had forgotten how to express her approval. Taz just didn't know. He tried putting her down for a nap, and that worked for about twenty minutes—just long enough for him to clean out the bottles in the sink—until she woke up and started crying again. He couldn't suppress his groan. He'd just sat down and was practically half-asleep. Work the night before had been stressful and busy, and he was still exhausted. Of course, he'd also had only about two hours of sleep between coming home and Luce waking up, and his husband had talked him into a quick but altogether quite satisfying round of sex before he went to shower and got ready for work. All in all, he was dreadfully tired, but he still hauled himself off the couch and went to pick up June again.

And so it went on like that for the rest of the day. It was a relief when Luce finally came home around three-thirty.

"Oh, thank God. Can you hold her for like two minutes?" Taz asked, making a beeline right for him.

"Yeah, no problem." Luce took off his suit jacket and gave Taz a light kiss as they executed a complicated shifting of the baby from Taz's arms to his while June continued crying. "She's upset about something, huh?"

Taz started to walk away, heading toward the bathroom. "Yeah, she's been…" But then he stopped. June coughed again, and for a moment, it was quiet.

And then she stayed quiet. He turned around to make sure he hadn't just gone deaf to her crying, but no—June had really, finally, stopped crying. "Bloody Hell," he muttered.

"What?" Luce looked up, confused. So June had stopped crying—big deal. He found it a little more noteworthy that she was staring up at him like she'd never seen him before.

"She's been crying literally all day. This is the first time she's been quiet in hours."

"Huh." Luce looked back down at June, whose eyes were starting to droop closed. "Well, she's alright now."

Taz ran his fingers through his hair and chuckled. "I suppose she was just tired of looking at my face all day."

And for the next year or so (and even longer), that ended up being the case. For the most part, Taz was able to comfort June quite well and keep her entertained, but sometimes, only being held or cuddled by Daddy would do.

Taz was fine with that, though. It meant he was off the hook and got a little bit of sleep.

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**I know this was short, but the subsequent chapters will not be so short. I just needed to get something light and fluffy out there and what better way than by imagining Balthazar with a little infant?**

**I already have another 26 chapters for this planned, so this will be quite long.**


	2. This is Halloween

**Thanks to Mems for beta-reading this. She knows infinitely more about babies than I do.**

**Also thanks to Keefer, Sexy. Lil. Emo, tmmdeathwishraven, Kathrin J Pearl, KitCat1995, BookwormI, madclifton, and Mems for your reviews to the last chapter!**

* * *

That first Halloween found Taz doing something he hadn't done since opening the bar ten years before: taking Halloween off. Today, he was at Wal-Mart, stocking up on whatever candy was left. He and Luce had been so busy lately, neither of them had gone shopping for longer than fifteen minutes, so Halloween had rather snuck up on them this year. Besides, with June getting bigger and starting to roll around, they had their hands full.

Taz tossed a few bags of mixed candies into his shopping cart and, on a whim, went to the costume section. As expected, there wasn't much of a selection left, but there were a few small accessories left. That suited him just fine—he hadn't fully dressed up for Halloween in years. But this would be June's first Halloween, and that warranted something special. He snorted with laughter at one of the remaining accessories: a small headband with tiny antennae on it, presumably part of a baby's insect costume. Well, that would work. He dropped it into the basket and went to check out.

When Taz returned home, it was to a very strange sight. Luce had spread out June's fuzzy green blanket on the floor and set June on her stomach. Then he'd stretched out on the floor on his stomach directly across from her. The two of them were now engaged in an intense staring contest.

Actually, Luce was the one doing the staring. June, not understanding the concept of a staring contest, blinked slowly but freely, but she wasn't looking away. For some reason or another, she gazed intently at her dad's face as though it were the only interesting thing in the room. To her, that was probably the case, anyway. Babies were by far more interested in looking at people than toys.

As Taz walked in, June abruptly rolled onto her back. A smile twitched across her face as Luce rolled into _his_ back, mimicking her. "Time to look at the ceiling now?" Luce asked her, tipping his head back to continue looking at her. "It's quite the fascinating ceiling."

"I leave you alone for twenty minutes and I return to chaos. Also, I don't think she cares about the ceiling," Taz joked, locking the door behind him.

"Oh, shush." Luce flipped back over and reached out to tickle June's stomach, but she grabbed his index finger and refused to let go. "Oh, shit." He grinned. "Someone's catching on."

"She _is_ a clever little baby." Taz set the two bags he'd acquired at the store down on the sofa and rummaged through them until he found the headband. Luce looked up at him in interest as Taz unwrapped the headband, slunk over to where June was laying, and rolled her onto her stomach. With a surprised look, she let go of Luce's finger. "And voila!" Taz said, carefully placing the headband on June's head.

Luce started laughing as he pulled himself into a sitting position. "So, what, she's an insect for her first Halloween?"

"A June bug."

Still grinning, he rolled his eyes. "Very clever. _That_ isn't gonna get old anytime soon." He reached out and tweaked one of the antennae. "Is that gonna be safe for her?"

"It's part of a baby's costume, so I'm fairly certain it's intended to be worn by a baby."

Luce rolled his eyes. "The damn thing isn't gonna fall off and choke her, is it?"

Taz chuckled and sat down next to Luce. "I highly doubt it. But I recommend watching her to be sure."

June was oblivious to her parents talking. She rolled onto her back and started reaching up to tug on the headband, but her arms were just a little too short to get a good grip. That didn't stop her from trying, though. She just went right on trying to reach.

Luce noticed and had to fight back a manly giggle. "Where's your phone? You have to take a picture of that."

"Hang on," Taz said, grinning. He shifted to dig his phone out of his back pocket and took a quick picture. June gave her papa a curious look for a moment before turning her attention back to the fuzzy headband. "Are we still doing that Halloween party thing with Gabe and the rest of them?"

"Yeah, of course. The other kids are gonna be excited to see June."

Taz's grin widened and he placed a quick kiss on Luce's cheek. "I knew you'd be a good father but I didn't expect you to completely lose your marbles when she was born."

"I haven't 'lost my marbles,'" Luce said, making a face. "She's just adorable, that's all." Even as he said it, though, he got the sense that maybe Taz was right. He really had changed in the last few months. He'd never really considered himself a "baby" person, but ever since June arrived, he'd flipped out. The dozen or so baby pictures he kept in his wallet testified to that. It wasn't even a fraction of the photos he had, either. Every morning, he would take a picture of her. He had this vague idea where, one day, after he had ten or fifteen or twenty years' worth of pictures, he'd put all the photos together and watch her change day-to-day.

"If you insist," Taz joked with a small smile. He wrapped his arm loosely around Luce's waist and added, "What time did you want to take off?"

"In an hour or so. She's probably gonna get hungry again before we leave."

Taz nodded. "That would make sense." He extended his other arm and reached out to tickle his daughter. She ignored him completely until he actually touched her—then she gurgled happily and flailed her legs. "What?" he asked Luce, who was giving him an amused smirk.

"Lost my marbles, huh? Look who's calling the kettle black."

"Shut up."

* * *

An hour and a half later saw them pulling up in front of Gabe and Sam's house with June mercifully passed out in her car seat. Taz managed to get her out of the backseat without jostling her too much and Luce grabbed the bags of candy that his husband had bought earlier. The idea for this venture had been Gabe's, of course. Three years ago, back when Anna and Raphael had deemed Layla old enough to go trick-or-treating, Gabe had mentioned it and it ended up being a group thing—their social circle would gather at his and Sam's house and use it as a base camp, so to speak, for the festivities. This was mostly because the neighborhood he and Sam had moved into had a lot of children and the best candy (which was something Gabe knew immediately). Inias had been about a year and a half old at the time, so Michael and Rachel saw nothing against joining in, and Luce and Taz as well as Dean and Castiel had tagged along for the Hell of it, although Dean and Castiel ended up just staying at the house to pass out candy. The next year, they had Andy to keep them preoccupied, leaving Gabe with the candy detail. Luce knew for a fact that almost half of the candy ended up in Gabriel's stomach.

But now he and Taz had June and, even though she wouldn't actually be eating any candy, they were still going to tag along with the Burbanks, Wessons, and Novaks.

Layla came bounding out of the house in her full duck costume, complete with a beak. "Uncle Taz! Uncle Lu!" she called excitedly. Inias wasn't too far behind her, wearing an alien costume and waving his arms. Luce managed to shift his grip on the bags of candy to grab both kids and carry them to the door under his arms.

"Hey, kids. You ready to get some candy?"

"Yeah! Uncle Gabe said we were just waiting for you slowpokes," Inias said, giggling.

"Slowpokes, huh?" Luce grinned and set down the kids on the porch to open the door. "Looks like I'm gonna have to have a talk with Uncle Gabe, then. He needs to learn to respect his elders."

"Elders, huh?" Gabe asked sarcastically. He appeared in the foyer and give Luce a hug. "Everyone knows beauty is more important than age."

"Then I _still_ have you beat." Luce held open the front door to allow Taz to maneuver his way into the house with June in her carrier. "Anyway, I want to see how fast _you_ get ready with a four-month-old."

Gabe snorted. "Don't let Sam hear you say that. He's starting to get into the whole baby thing now, too."

"And that's not your thing?"

Gabe shrugged. "It is, but I'm not ready for a kid yet. Maybe after I pick up a desk job or something. I don't want to be on the streets and end up… You know, if shit goes south somehow, I don't want to leave Sam by himself with a kid."

"That makes a fair bit of sense."

"But that's a depressing train of thought," Gabriel said suddenly, his face brightening. "Did you bring the candy?"

"Of course I did." Luce tossed the bags of candy at Gabe, whose grin widened as he tore them open and dumped the candies into a huge bowl.

"Awesome. Sam, Mikey, and Cas are finishing up dinner in the kitchen and everyone else is just kind of waiting. You guys are the last to get here, so once we eat, I guess you're all just gonna go trick-or-treating. Same basic deal as last year." He bent down just in time to scoop up a wriggling and giggling Samandriel, who was dressed as a lion. "The little ones can barely sit still, they're so excited."

Luce grinned. "Yeah, June probably isn't going to be much fun this year, but next year will be better for her, I think."

"She have a costume?" Gabe set down Andy, who went tearing into the kitchen.

"Sort of. Taz bought her a little headband with antennae on it. He says she's a June bug." As if on cue, they heard June start crying from the living room. The wailing quieted a few moments later as Taz presumably picked her up. "Well, she's awake, at least. Looks like she's gonna be up for the walk after all."

* * *

After they finished off the homemade pizza as quickly as they could—Layla finished long before anyone else and started rushing around the living room until Anna caught her and sat her back down—the small mob of adults and children got ready to go. Dean scrambled to find the last plastic pumpkin bucket for Andy as Rachel zipped Inias into a light windbreaker. The evening air was a little cool, but Luce thought the jacket was a bit unwarranted. That didn't stop him for pulling a little beanie over June's head, though. He had an excuse, though—babies got cold more easily.

Once June had eaten, she was quiet and perfectly content to lay against her daddy's shoulder and suck her thumb while the other three children charged up various walkways to the houses in the neighborhood, shepherded by Mikey and Castiel. "TRICK OR TREAT!" they chorused, and Luce gave June a gentle shake.

"That's gonna be you next year, isn't it? Up there, freezing your butt off in some costume you'll only be able to wear once, getting all hopped up on sugar, and driving me and Papa crazy, huh?"

She seemed to shake her head, but she just peered over Luce's shoulder and pulled her thumb out of her mouth to flash a big, toothless grin at Taz. When she saw her papa's smile, she let out a happy gurgle. He ran a hand over her tiny yellow beanie affectionately and kissed the top of her head. "I don't know about you, love, but I'm looking forward to seeing that."

Luce went to tickle June, but she caught his finger and refused to let go. "Yeah. I think I am, too."

* * *

**I can't wait for June to get a little older...she's gonna be so badass.**


End file.
